Pages past — Sept. 24

On this date ...

1976: A teenage driver crashed his car into the Radio Shack building at 121 Purdue in Clovis.

No one was injured, but the impact left two holes in the building’s south wall.

1971: Clayton Reed, one of Clovis’ earliest settlers, had died at a local rest home.

He was 90.

Reed and the late Charles Steed moved to the area in 1905 from Olathe, Kansas.

Reed was a corn farmer whose land included much of the downtown area in what’s now Clovis. He was working in his field in 1906, approximately where First Baptist Church is located today, when he was approached by a Santa Fe Railway official about selling the land.

After selling to the railroad, Reed and Steed went into the real estate business.

In 1907, he opened a dairy on what later became Grand Avenue; for 40 years, he milked up to 75 head of cows per day.

He was the last remaining charter member of one of Clovis’ first service clubs, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, which formed in 1907.

Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at:

http://www.highplainsyesterdays.com